Yosun still couldn’t believe it had all happened. Ever since the talk within his Master’s den, he had half felt like everything was a dream, and half like it was all some weird suspenseful nightmare. His nervousness about what he was going to do slowly increased as the pile of supplies and other items grew in the corner of Kamau’s den.
Apparently the pile was his supply kit.
Looking down he frowned at the uneven line of stitches he had worked into the hide stretched under his paws and between three large stones. He had been trying to form the hide into a pack, but so far he wasn’t sure if it had worked. It just looked like a huge mess to him but Kamau had come to inspect him and his work regularly and seemed happy with its progress. What the elder was up to Yosun wasn’t sure, but a very powerful and rather unpleasant smell had been steadily growing in strength from within the Master Jedi’s den. When Yosun had asked he had just received that familiar and frustrating enigmatic smile. If Kamau didn’t want to tell you something, no among of whining, begging or sneaky questions would get it out of him. A lesson Yosun had learned very swiftly after first meeting the unconventional Jedi. So instead of wasting time wondering he simply returned to his appointed task of sewing the hide together.
Several days later Kamau declared the hide satisfactory and whisked it away into his den where the stink of whatever he had been working on was almost overpowering. Even the great Jedi himself had taken to sleeping outside, only venturing in to check on his work. And still Yosun had no idea what it was that his Master was up to. Still, he tried to ignore the impossibly rank whiff and was very grateful when Kamau gave him his next set of tasks. Which mostly consisted of gathering and hunting a variety of items and animals. The most important thing was that it would take him away from the smelly den.
Having memorised the items needed he set off into the forest, hoping he would be able to locate the necessary ingredients. This wouldn’t be so hard but he had never done very well with the most technical lessons and while he recognised most plants and knew what they were for, his knowledge was far from complete and some of the things his Master had asked for he only vaguely remembered.
It was several hours before he found his first item. The leaves of a certain climbing vine. They were easy enough to harvest but as he stood staring at the pile by his paws he realised he didn’t have any way of taking them with him as he continued his quest. Scowling at his own naivety he left the pile and went searching for a suitable receptacle. Eventually he returned with a huge palm leaf, which he spent the rest of the morning carefully weaving into a basket-net of sorts. It was uneven and full of holes but as he wasn’t trying to carry a liquid it would do. After piling all the leaves into the basket he set it to one side as he had noticed the tree the vine was growing against was actually another of the items on his list. Or more specifically, its bark.
For the next few hours he spent time collecting the bark, as well as a whole variety of flowers and leaves and stems that he found in the surrounding area. Thankfully, despite their mountain home, the pride did have quite a lot of resources close at hand. To carry everything he had been forced to make two more frond-baskets and had even tied the three together so he could sling them across his shoulders for ease of carrying. Now the only things left were more difficult to find, or required hunting, as they were alive. Pausing to gauge how much daylight was left he realised that he should be able to find most of what was left before darkness fell, the rest.. well, they were best found at night anyway.
It was early the next morning when Yosun finally re-emerged back into the clearing where his Master’s den was. The smell seemed faded now, as if whatever had been happening was over. Kamau himself was stretched out in front of his home, seemingly napping. But as Yosun padded closer, the leopard stretched and sat up.
“Welcome back child.” He smiled that enigmatic, hard to read smile of his as he stood, revealing what had previously been hidden in the lee of his body. The hide, which Yosun only recognised because he had stared at its many scuffs and spots for so long, sat next to a pile of leaf-wrapped packages. The pack looked totally different. It was a recognisable shape, for one, and had been stained and painted with the Jedi pride’s symbols and patterns. It included Kamau’s own signal and for some reason, having his Master’s seal on Yosun’s work made it hard to breathe for a moment.
After regaining his composure he moved forward, setting his leaf-wrapped collection down as he did so. He recognised many of the packages that sat beside his new pack. The painted shapes represented on the leaf-wrapped bundles were the markings for many healing salves and powders. Others were for additives and poisons. Nothing lethal, but the right poison used in the right way could have a beneficial effect, such as to put the user into a sleep so deep he seamed dead. Useful for the resetting of bones and other such serious injuries. Another produced a sickness, making the subject suffer vomiting and diarrhea. Used with success to treat those who took bad meat from the two-leggers traps.
He stood awed by the collection, for it was a wealth the likes he never expected to own. The time and skill taken to produce each salve and paste was great and most would hesitate to give even one of these precious bundles away. That Kamau was sending all of it with him was… humbling.
Speaking of his Master… he turned to where the leopard was ferrying his three leaf-baskets into the den and all of a sudden he realised just how much his Master was giving him. Unlike what he had assumed, he had not been gathering things for his own quest, but to replace those that Kamau had just given him. For turning the raw ingredients into the final product took days or even weeks, and more skill than Yosun possessed.
Feeling an uncharacteristic well of emotion fill his throat he turned and padded towards the den.
(Word count = 1,120)
